So here’s who I’m voting for:
[ul]
[li]Clinton/Kaine, for reasons stated all over the board. [/li][li]**Eldridge **and Isaacson–because the incumbents voted for that stupid 9/11 bill. And because, while they won’t win, I want to do what I can to aid in reducing or reversing the Republican majority in both houses. [/li][li]A whole bunch of local offices, which are all running unopposed this year, oddly. And, unlike last time, not a Green Party candidate in site. All Republicans, save one Democrat–the coroner.[/li][/ul]And now the propositions:
[ol]
[li]YES to changing term limits to four years, and no quitting early. Would make it easier to vote for them.[/li][li]YES to letting the governor remain in power when he leaves the state, to avoid that weird situation when they are two different parties.[/li][li]YES to removing the 5% GOP bond cap, to allow a bit more flexibility for a difficult financial situation in the state.[/li][li]NO to restricting medical torts. I’d prefer something better than punitive damages, but, until we have them, we need to be able to have the reward be hard enough to hurt. Throwing in monetary restrictions on retirement homes is not enough to overcome this problem. [/li][li]NO to the casino bill. I’m not anti-casino, but it bakes in both the locations and the companies. And there are other ways to add gambling to the state.[/li][li]and 7. YES. I prefer 7, which has provisions for Medicaid stuff and growing your own if you can’t get to a supplier, but but I want to vote for both medical marijuana initiatives, so that either one may win. A big worry is that splitting them might make neither win. (If both win, the one with the most votes will be enacted.)[/li][/ol]
And I freaking love being able to vote absentee. Here in Arkansas, just saying you will be “unavoidably absent” is enough, so anyone can do it. And that means I got to go use Ballotpedia to figure things out. All the time in the world, and no waiting.
The downside is that, if you get it by mail, you have to return it that way, and you have to pay the return postage. So I have actually go get stamps, which I never use. Well, unless they have a machine there–it’s been so long since I’ve seen the post office, I don’t know.
Also, I love that I can register online. The PDF comes in, I fill it out, and use the signature I have saved, and then email it to my county clerk.
Finally, an annoyance: why is the ballot always pre-folded in half, but the envelope requires it to be folded into thirds? Anyone else’s ballots like that?